Learn how to create low-resolution clips for offline editing, which you can replace with high-resolution clips for online editing.

For online editing, you edit clips at the
level of quality required for the final version of the video program.
This is the default method of working in Premiere Pro. Online editing
works well when the speed and storage capacity of the host computer
are adequate to the demands of the video formats used. For example, most
modern computers can handle the data rate of DV in full resolution.
They may be challenged, however, by the greater demands of, for
example, HDV or HD footage. For many videographers, that’s where offline
editing comes in.

In offline editing, after capturing high-resolution
clips, you make low-resolution copies of them for editing purposes.
After editing, you replace the low-resolution footage associated
with the clips with the high-quality original footage. You can finish,
render, and export your final product in high-resolution. Editing
the low-resolution clips allows standard computers to edit excessively
large assets, such as HDV or HD footage, without losing performance
speed. It also lets editors use laptop computers to edit—for example,
while on location.

You may edit a project with the high-resolution footage remaining
online throughout the project. On the other hand, you may edit in
a two-phase workflow. You make your initial creative decisions with
the high-resolution footage offline. Then you bring the high-resolution
footage back online for fine-tuning, grading, and color correction.

You can complete an offline edit of, for example, an HD project
with Premiere Pro, and then export your project to EDL for transfer
to an editing system with more powerful hardware. You can then perform
the final online edit and rendering, at full resolution, on the
more powerful hardware.

Create low-resolution clips for
offline editing

Capture or import assets into the Project
panel at full resolution.

In the Project panel, click the New Bin button, and name
a bin for your low-resolution clips.

Launch Adobe Media Encoder, and add all the clips for
your project to the Adobe Media Encoder Queue.

In Adobe Media Encoder, click Settings.

Change the format and other settings to the format and
settings for a lower-resolution format.

Click the filename in the Output Name field, and browse
to the folder you created for your low-resolution clips.

Click OK.

Click Start Queue.

Adobe Media Encoder encodes clips in the low-resolution
format, and, by default, retains the filename of the original clips
in the filenames of the encoded clips.

Note:

When creating
low-resolution clips for offline editing with Adobe Media Encoder,
clips with two audio channels are created even if you have four
or more audio channels on your footage. This problem is a limitation
of Adobe Media Encoder, so use an alternate tool if the other audio
channels are to be preserved.

In the Premiere Pro Project panel, open the bin you created
for low-resolution clips. Import the low-resolution clips into this
bin.